Seven Ben Cohens have been arrested after arresting testimony by US Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
The co-founder of Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream and six other people were arrested after disrupting the US Senate hearing to protest Washington’s support for Israeli war in Gaza.
The arrest of Ben Cohen and other protesters came on Wednesday as U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. testified to lawmakers about reforming federal health agencies.
“Congress will kill poor children in Gaza by buying bombs and pay it by kicking children from Medicaid in the US,” Cohen said he was escorted by police.
Seven people have been arrested on charges of “crowding, obstructing or neglecting,” assaulting a police officer or resisting arrest, Capitol Police said in a statement.
Police said Cohen was charged with crowding, obstructing or neglecting, or both, with misdemeanor punishable in prison for 90 days, a $500 fine, or both.
Cohen and his co-founder of Ben & Jerry, Jerry Greenfield, are well known for their progressive activities, including opposition to Israel’s actions in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.
In an interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson earlier this month, Jewish Cohen said the US had a “strange relationship” with Israel involving Washington “supplying weapons for the massacre.”
“The point of being American now is that we are the world’s largest arms exporter and the world’s largest military. We are supporting the massacre of the people of Gaza,” Cohen said.
“If someone protests against the massacre of the Gaza people, we will arrest them. What does our country mean?”
In 2021, Ben & Jerry announced that Israeli licensees will no longer be allowed to sell ice cream in the West Bank and Gaza.
The following year, a US judge blocked sales after denied a bid for Ben & Jerry’s injunction and discovered that the company was unable to show it was irreparable harm.
Founded in Vermont, USA in 1978, Ben & Jerry and its parent company Unilever later resolved legal disputes on private terms.
In March, Ben & Jerry filed a lawsuit accusing Unilever of firing chief executive David Stever of his support for the brand’s “social mission.”
More than 51,000 people have been killed in Gaza since Israel launched the war following the attack on the country on October 7, 2023.
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